David Solomon says AI means Goldman needs ‘more high-value people’

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said AI doesn’t mean he’s looking for fewer employees, just better employees.

“We need more high-quality people,” he said. Axios. “We can enable more high-value people to expand our footprint and continue to grow and expand our business.”

Technology, Solomon said, will inevitably change the way analysts, associates and investment bankers do their jobs, making productive people more productive. Solomon reiterated his belief that technology will help increase the company’s workforce over the next ten years.

However, earlier this month, Goldman outlined its OneGS 3.0 in a memo to employees and said it would implement “limited role reduction” as part of the AI-driven overhaul. The bank will also limit headcount growth until the end of the year, the note said. A Goldman spokesperson previously told Business Insider that the company expects to end this year with a net increase in headcount. Its global workforce grew 5% to around 48,000, according to its third-quarter results.

Solomon said at a conference in early October that Goldman had spent $6 billion on technology this year and that he expected the bank to ultimately become “a much bigger company.”

“There are obviously some things where we’re going to have a lot less people — but I would love to have the ability to go and get more people to spend time with customers,” Solomon said at the conference. Goldman employs some 12,000 technologists, and Solomon said he expects AI to have the most immediate impact on software development.

Solomon also told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” last week that the speed at which AI is developing could lead to more “volatility” around certain job functions, adding that “the makeup of engineers with this technology is going to change again” in the near future.

AI is transforming work on Wall Street, with banks, private equity firms, hedge funds and asset managers investing heavily in the technology. Solomon spoke with Axios ahead of Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Small Business Summit in Washington, DC, which Business Insider will attend.

Do you have any advice? Contact this reporter by email at atecotzky@insider.com or Signal to alicetecotzky.05. Use a personal email address and a non-work device; here is our guide to sharing information securely.